This policy lab starts from the premise that teaching integrity to civil servants is vital and that it can be done. It will explore innovative, outcome oriented approaches to integrity in civil service training, moving from box-ticking to results. How can action learning become part of this training agenda? How can the learning be made holistic? And what outcomes can one expect? And how might these outcomes be assessed?

A top administrator of a famous civil service training institution once told us, “We don’t need to teach integrity

or anti-corruption, because we teach things as they ought to be.” Unfortunately, when they join the public service, many graduates of this and other training institutions find that their workplace does not always function as it ought to be.

Public officials today work in a global environment that is more demanding of higher governance standards, which now include much more direct engagement with citizens as consumers and potential partners, rather than solely as passive beneficiaries of public services. Civil society has local knowledge and skills that can complement the professionalism of public officials and thereby enhance public service delivery and improve the integrity of public projects.

Civil service training institutions have often struggled with how best to teach and train integrity and public service ethics. In some countries the topic is therefore ignored altogether, despite a prevalence of integrity failures. In other cases, training is limited to codes of ethics, general statements of good conduct, or to principles of compliance that may have minimal applicability in the daily life of public officials.

Key Learning Objectives

How to create a tailor-made training programme for integrity and public sector ethics.

How to conduct monitoring and evaluation for this training.

How training on integrity can be an integral part of advancing the agendas of Open and Accountable Government, Transparency, Access to Information, and Citizen Engagement

How to develop a model Certificate for Integrity Building

How to develop a model Certified Integrity Officer scheme for advanced practitioners

How to use the training programme as a means of strengthening relations with external stakeholders

Who Should Take This Policy Lab?

This policy lab is principally aimed at senior management from the public administration as well as practitioners in government and public development agencies and institutes, government as well as civil society organisations working towards finding innovative ways of improving the government and public practices of their activities who can work with other key department and officials and train them to act as policy changers and makers in this sector.